IT'S tough trying to teach a young person how to write an editorial. But it's even more daunting when the commentary's topic is complex, even for most grown-ups. That was the challenging quandary on Saturday, when I returned to my beloved alma mater to lead a Journalism Day class at the University of Hawaii. Writing about diversity
and divisivenessPreparing whipper-snappers to usurp my office is an invigorating joy. Most of my attentive class of two dozen high schoolers already had experience authoring editorials for their respective newspapers, so that was no problem.
But the topic, "Diverse or Divisive?", was an absolute head-scratcher. How should we tackle the delicate topic of race relations in the islands? Were these teens mature enough to realize that this was more than a treatise on the appropriateness of a Frank DeLima joke?
We decided that their individual editorials, which would be critiqued later in the day by a panel of judges, should have something to do with the brouhaha at Kalaheo and Castle high schools, both embroiled in controversies involving their campus yearbooks.
In 1997 at Kalaheo, a caption under a photo of three singing African-American students referred to pigs feet, collard greens and chitlins, so-called slave food. Then last year at Castle, a picture of a student wearing a Ku Klux Klan-looking outfit was included in the annual. In both cases, lawsuits were filed.
During our discussion, all of the scribes acknowledged some diversity issue existed on their campuses -- ranging from fights between ethnic groups to friendly social cliques based on race.
But hasn't this always been true? And doesn't it also exist in the real-life world of adults? Was what's happening in the schools a microcosm of larger problems looming after graduation? Are our campuses cultivating the next generation of bigots?
This was getting way too confusing. (Maybe I needed more coffee. Maybe my brain wasn't used to functioning so early on a Saturday morning.) With only a few minutes left before the students heard from other speakers and then wrote their editorials, we brainstormed some pros and cons of strong ethnic identification. And then, like a nervous mother hen, I sent them off to their impossible task.
Thankfully, I was wrong. They had, indeed, grasped the subtleties of diversity and divisiveness in the schools, and the significance of their actions in later affecting race relations in Hawaii. They had mulled it, analyzed it and then proudly put it down on paper from their own youthfully fresh perspective.
NOTE this brief excerpt from the winning senior division editorial, written by Crystal Silva of Kapaa High: "As youngsters, students were force-fed the message, 'You are special,' or 'Be your own kind of beautiful.' This message was overcome by racial slurs and jokes as soon as we became old enough to understand them. They have become a fall-back source, a rebuttal used in situations where one feels threatened...
"(But) there is a fine line between gentle ribbing and a discriminatory remark. Once the line is crossed, there is no going back. People should not have to settle for an apology. No one should be ashamed of what he or she is. There is something beautiful in every culture; it is up to us to find it...
"The solution is simple. Let's all travel back in time to possibly the best lesson of all: 'Everyone is special. Be your own kind of beautiful.' "
Thanks for getting it, young writers. Now go spread the word.
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
DianeChang@aol.com, or by fax at 523-7863.